Chapter 16: It's an Unwritten Rule That the Transfer Student Is a Singularity (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: It's an Unwritten Rule That the Transfer Student Is a Singularity (4)
We talked about many things.
My stained past, and the unexpected benefactor I met during the rainy season. Memories of how he took me in—a child who was actually an orphan—and turned me into a human being.
"On days I didn't listen, he'd beat me so hard dust would fly in a rainstorm."
I stubbornly added my own personal reflection that even those beatings were fists of tough love.
'I have to protect my first Boss's image, after all. It's the least I can do as his son.'
Of course, I left out the part about it happening in my original world—Earth.
That fact weighed on my conscience like a block of lead, but I had no way to explain it, and I wanted to hide it if possible.
I swear I wasn't trying to deceive Ryozo or Abel. If it were up to my heart, I'd tell them everything. But...
'If I do that...'
I was already an alien existence here. If they learned that I was a being from beyond this world, how would the two of them react?
Even if Ryozo and Abel fully understood, the way they looked at me would inevitably change. I didn't have the confidence to handle that.
'You still haven't grown up, Kang Geomma.'
Having become a god in a human body, all I do is rush to hide things. I agreed to tell her about my Master, not about my own truth. Making such pathetic self-justifications...
A wave of self-loathing washed over me. And, as always—then and now—Ryozo's voice pulled me out of the mire.
"He sounds like a wonderful person."
Ryozo said, pulling her cheek away from my chest, where it had been resting. Her sky-blue eyes gazed up at me, proud and steady.
"...He was a wonderful person."
My lips were parched. I felt their dryness.
"Honestly, if not for me, he could have enjoyed his own life to his heart's content. He dedicated his whole life to me."
There was deep meaning packed into those words.
My foster father, the Hero of the Origin, Balor Joaquin—his Earth name being Ho Ak-hyeon—was an infinite regressor.
It was the G.M.'s arrangement to delay the world's destruction caused by false gods. Yet that very G.M. had been me, Kang Geomma.
To put it bluntly, Boss practically had no life of his own. In the world of 'Miracle Blessing M,' he was a cog in the system, and on Earth, he sacrificed his life for one rotten, impudent brat.
'Father never had a life to call his own.'
That was why the fuller and happier my life became, the heavier my guilt grew.
He endured all kinds of hardships. Instead of showing filial piety, I, as his son, sucked him dry and was now enjoying such a comfortable life.
"Now that I've gotten older, I've realized something... just growing older doesn't make you an adult."
A period of self-reflection followed. I stared into the quiet light illuminating the room.
Instead of pleasant conversation, here I was, dumping nothing but negative thoughts onto my wife.
"Maybe it's a difference in innate character. Father at my age was surely a much better person than I am now. In contrast, I..."
"Sorry to cut you off,"
Ryozo pressed her index finger against my lips to seal them.
"When I said your foster father was a wonderful person, I wasn't just talking about his character. Um, how should I explain this... Geomma, doing it your way, showing you once will be better than telling you a hundred times..."
Muttering to herself, Ryozo suddenly snapped her head toward me. Then she grabbed my wrist tightly and stood up.
"Let's go outside."
So suddenly?
Ryozo hauled me up and headed outside. As I've said time and again, an archer's grip strength is formidable.
Still, somehow, that gave me strength. Carried by Ryozo's resolute stride, I let myself be pulled along without resistance. Her thick, dark hair danced softly in the air.
* * *
"Here."
Our journey was brief. Just up a flight of stairs, and that was it. The place Ryozo brought me to was none other than the rooftop of our three-story house.
It was an unseasonable sentiment, but the view was truly magnificent. We were probably the only family owning a prime piece of private land right in the middle of Joaquin Academy, where property values were astronomical.
Swoosh.
Ryozo held out both arms. I blinked blankly for a second before dropping to one knee and opening my arms as if embracing the air.
Slink.
I carefully cradled the back of Ryozo's knees and her white neck, holding her like a precious treasure.
She wrapped one arm around my neck, using her free hand to point toward the sea of stars.
"Let's go up."
I had carried Ryozo and Abel princess-style like this to fly several times before. If someone scolded me for using lightning magic just to play pseudo-airplane, I wouldn't have anything to say in my defense. But it was the perfect way to score points with my two wives.
'She must have a plan.'
I didn't play dumb. Her intellect was second to none in the world, and I was the person she trusted most.
"As you command."
An intense gleam erupted from my eyes. My hair floated up strand by strand as if caught in a powerful static field, and electrical currents coated the entire rooftop floor.
I lightly kicked off the floor. My view rippled, and the vanishing point swallowed us whole.
KABOOM!
A bolt of lightning struck down.
Ryozo squeezed her eyes shut before opening them slowly. In the next moment, the full moon filled her vision completely.
We were floating.
Somewhere between the buildings and the clouds.
With Joaquin Academy beneath our feet.
The pair of blue skies in her eyes reflected the moon, then turned to take me in, and finally drifted downward to embrace the academy below.
"Wow..."
Even Ryozo, who was usually stingy with reactions, became generous with her exclamations at this moment. Seeing her like that made me smile so broadly the corners of my eyes crinkled.
"Shall we go higher?"
"...Yeah."
She gave a slight nod, looking a bit shy.
I pushed off against the clouds once more with my toes. Joaquin Academy rapidly receded.
What had been distinct shapes turned into tiny dots. Looking down from here, it was as if the carpet of lights was a reflection of the night sky's stars.
The air thinned out, and white vapor began to escape our breath. I glanced down at Ryozo.
"Is it hard to breathe?"
"I'm fine. I activated my Blessing."
The Blessings of archers were specialized in breath control. On top of that, Ryozo was a descendant of the Divine Archer, one of the Seven Champions. Her lung capacity and stamina were exceptional even among archers.
"What about you, Geomma?"
"I'm fine."
Ryozo asked out of politeness, even though she already knew the answer. After all, ten years ago I had traveled through open space, so fooling around within the atmosphere was nothing.
I snapped my fingers repeatedly, continuing our ascent.
Before long, the flat horizon curved into a gentle arc. In just a matter of seconds, we had become beings closer to the heavens than the earth.
Like stars. Perhaps to the cadets taking a night stroll below, we looked like a pair of stars in the night sky.
"You know..."
Around then, Ryozo broke the silence.
"When the previous Academy Principal shoved this position onto me, I refused and said I'd never do it. Do you remember?"
"Of course I remember. Medea-nim came to us day and night for a week, banging her head on the ground in deep bows. And when that didn't work, she ended up doing a full headstand bow, didn't she?"
A grand headstand bow.
A prime example of just how far human dignity could plummet. Medea had done that for Ryozo.
'It was a textbook headstand bow.'
Remembering it, Ryozo burst into laughter, her breath dissipating into the pale clouds.
"Back then, I said I didn't want to do it because I had to prepare for our wedding, but you know that wasn't the real reason, right? How long could wedding prep take? I'm confessing this only to you... but it was actually because of the Archery Saint..."
"..."
"Being at the academy brought back so many conflicting emotions. As a father, the Archery Saint was absolute trash. As a husband, he was even worse. But in the 2nd Human-Demon War, he laid down his life for humanity."
Ryozo's face hardened.
"Worst as family, yet respectable as a fellow hero... As a teenager, I couldn't bear those mixed emotions. While I was suffering alone like that, Mom called me over one day and said this: Regardless of his character, the Archery Saint was one of the heroes who saved Joaquin Academy. Thanks to that, you are here today... 'and didn't you get to meet Geomma?' she said..."
"I didn't know Mother-in-law said that."
At my words, Ryozo scoffed lightly.
"My mom's love for her son-in-law is out of this world, I swear. Sometimes I think she considers you her child instead of me. Every time we meet, it's always 'Our Geomma this, our Geomma that.'"
"She is certainly lively."
Free-spirited, too.
She was someone who personally gave sex education to her own daughter. In a country as conservative in that regard as Korea, she was an intellectual that came around once in a generation.
"Anyway. What I wanted to say is that, in the end, humans can't be perfect, and ultimately, the Archery Saint was a great person."
A vapor trail swept past us just then. Ryozo clenched her fist and elaborated.
"That doesn't erase his sins, of course, but Mom and I have forgiven him. Besides, the reason that man lost his mind was because he lost his first wife, Lady Cheolsim. Back then, I couldn't understand it, but now I think I do."
"You think you understand now?"
"Because if you weren't in this world, Geomma, I think I'd end up the same way. Life would feel pointless and hollow. I'd want the world to crumble, but the heroic instinct ingrained deep inside wouldn't let me allow that. So it turns into self-loathing."
A dagger pierced my heart.
Whether Ryozo intended it or not, that single statement pierced right through my current state of mind.
Damn it. To think the day would come when I'd sympathize with the Archery Saint.
"The Archery Saint... that man gave up his family and chose humanity instead. Because he believed that held greater value for his life. No, because he thought that was his destiny."
"...So what you're saying is..."
"Your foster father didn't give up on his life either. He found the meaning of his life by raising you. And look at the result."
Ryozo gestured toward the ground below with her eyes.
Our bare eyes took in the world below.
Once an arena of conflict between humanity and demons caused by false gods, this place now shone with a light of prosperity brilliant beyond any era before. It was the fruit of long labor by Father and the sacred spirits who had passed on before him.
The soil they had cultivated with their very lives.
This world that Father gifted to you...
...take pride in having protected it, Geomma.
She had left the middle of our meal just to tell me this.
"Geomma."
Ryozo gently stroked my cold cheek.
"By saving you, your father saved this world—and us."
"..."
"If he knew, wouldn't he surely be proud? After all, even I—the daughter of a man who neglected his family—respect the Archery Saint."
The corners of my eyes stung, and my nostrils burned. It must be cold up here at such a high altitude. Water was trying to leak from every opening on my face.
"Geomma."
Ryozo called my name again. Her hands rumpled the clothes near my collarbone.
"It's hard for me to breathe."
"Did your Blessing run out already? Should we go down now?"
"No."
She shook her head vigorously.
"I deactivated the Blessing myself, and I don't want to go down."
"Then..."
Taking the cue, I brought my lips to hers. In the thin air, we shared each other's breath.
Crowned by the swirling Milky Way above, for a long, long time...
The night sky was warm.
Unbelievably so for being above the clouds.